Bunjil

For Docklands’ ‘Eagle’ by Bruce Armstrong,
and the Wurundjeri and Kulin’s
legendary wedgetail protector of those who will accept his guidance


Bunjil
you are the spirit
seeing all that we have
done – the bright
madness of our gleaming
shells of metal
curling towards the Dome
the MCG, Docklands
cathedrals of Australian Rules
where young warriors
dig the possum skin again
leaping for your wings Bunjil,
that marngrook game we mixed
with English rugby

way up high
you
sentinel
though you sit unmoving
over the yellow eel twists
of the Birrarung and Melbourne’s
snake backbone of trains
the wild rushes through your feathers
like an aeroplane
like a storm